An accessible, large-print, listening and talking e-book to support families reading together

Reading is an activity that is not only informative or pleasurable, but can have significant social benefits. Especially in a family setting, it is part of the interaction between children and their parents, it helps create a bond between children and their grandparents, and even bring adults and their older parents closer. However, with families increasingly living or spending time in different locations or managing busy schedules that afford very little time together, the social opportunities enabled by reading are often lost. Furthermore, reading can be a challenge for older adults or for those with impaired eyesight. To address these problems, we are proposing ALLT -- an Accessible, Large-Print, Listening and Talking e-book. ALLT is a tablet-based e-reading application that enhances the capabilities of e-book readers through customizable and intelligent accessibility features. It provides support for asynchronous "reading together" by synchronizing the audio recording of one user with the text that is later read by another user. This addresses the needs of a variety of users, from visually impaired adults reading together with a loved one, to children being able to replay an interactive story previously read together with their grandparents. In this demo paper we present ALLT's features and detail how they support asynchronously reading together.Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye

Visually Impaired Usability Requirements for Accessible Mobile Applications: A Checklist for Mobile E-book Applications

The definition of an e-book is a book in an electronic format, which can be beneficial to all readers, mainly those struggling with print books because of their vision impairments. Nevertheless, the visually impaired cannot access regular e-books because they do not meet their unique needs, and they require a more accessible e-book to reach the same expected advantages as those typically seen. Due to the lack of a clear list of these needs, developers are not aware of the specific requirements of the visually impaired for e-book applications. This paper aimed to analyse the visually impaired usability requirements for usable and accessible e-book applications. Three main activities were conducted: reviewing the literature, conducting an online survey of the visually impaired, and comparing the two results obtained earlier to acquire verified usability requirements. This study reviewed current works on the usability and accessibility of e-books from 2010 to 2022. Besides, this study also conducted reviews on common accessibility needs and standards for mobile applications. A total of 24 usability requirements were identified from the literature and compared with ten results from seven visually impaired respondents using an online survey. With these verified usability requirements, designers and practitioners can use them as a checklist to ensure all needs are considered when designing mobile e-books for the visually impaired

A usability evaluation model for accessible mobile e-book applications for the visually impaired

Evaluation plays a critical role in assessing the usability of e-book applications in terms of their accessibility which allows the visually impaired to get the same benefits as ordinary people. However, current e-book usability evaluation models are not for evaluating accessible mobile e-book applications for the visually impaired as they did not sufficiently consider the accessibility issues of these applications. This study aims to develop a model that evaluates the usability of accessible mobile e-book applications for the visually impaired. Literature review and requirement-gathering methods were used to generate usability evaluation factors and metrics and later constructed as a usability evaluation model. This model was verified with 11 domain experts, and the data were analysed using the Fuzzy Delphi Method. Besides, the model was reviewed for consistency, ease of use, understandability, verifiability, and overall impression. Further, a series of online usability tests and interview sessions were conducted with 12 visually impaired participants to validate on data collection ability of the model. The descriptive analysis method was used to analyse objective metrics, and deductive thematic analysis was performed to analyse subjective metrics from interviews. This study initially proposed five evaluation factors: satisfaction, accessibility, efficiency, effectiveness, and learnability, with 35 metrics which were refined to 31 metrics after being verified. Besides, the model was validated, and the findings showed the ability to collect data and the reliability of this model in the actual context of use. The proposed model contributes to the knowledge of accessibility design, evaluation methods and human-computer interaction. Mobile application developers or usability researchers can use this model as one of the references for developing excellent and usable accessible mobile e-book applications for the visually impaired. By having a usable and satisfying accessible mobile e-book application, visually impaired learning and reading routines could be more accessible